Tonight we completed task number two on the road to becoming Swiss citizens. We had our interview with the city council of Aeugst. And the whole process just reminded me of why I really like Switzerland in general. They do what they say, when they say it and there are almost never surprises. Herr Meier from the city council called two weeks ago to schedule the meeting. He made sure to reassure Chris that is was more of a getting-to-know-us thing rather than a quiz-us-on-all-things-Swiss thing. He estimated that it would be about half an hour, and that he looked forward to meeting us.
We arranged a babysitter for the kids and arrived at the Town Hall precisely at 6:59 p.m. I had misunderstood Chris when he told me of the meeting. I thought it was just going to be Herr Meier, Chris and I getting to know each other. So when I saw the parking lot full of cars and all the lights on in the building, I jokingly said, "Oh, they aren't all here for us, are they?" "Well, yeah." Oh great, now I am getting slightly nervous. But then in the parking lot we met our neighbor Silvia. She walked up to the door with us and Chris asked her, "Does this mean you are on the get to know us committee?" And she smiled and said, "yes." So I immediately felt better. I had an in, I already was friendly with one of them. Then I walked in the door and saw another friend from the children's school and I relaxed completely. No worries about us not being integrated enough into the community, I was already per Du with two of the committee! Yippee!
It was all quite pleasant, the mayor gave us a bit of background history on Aeugst and then asked us to explain why we had chosen Aeugst to live in and why we wanted to be Swiss citizens. Chris told them about living their as a child, and how he had always meant to come back eventually. And that we originally lived in Bonstetten, but needed a larger place and we happened to find it in Aeugst. Then the other members took turns asking us different questions. One lady wanted to know what my hobbies were, another wanted to know if we planned on participating in city council meetings and voting. (Well, yeah that's the whole reason of why we want to become citizens. We want a say in the laws that affect us.)
It came out that we were from Utah, and were LDS. So then one man wanted to know if that was awkward living in a Christian society and being Mormon. haha! We got to explain that the name of the church was Church of JESUS CHRIST of Lattery-Day Saints, and that we were Christian, too. They had a couple other questions about the church and then someone suggested that we give presentation to the town sometime about our religion, they found it most interesting. So we may just do that. I am thinking it would be kind of fun to set up a little Pioneer Day celebration, although it would be better at a different time of year, as everyone is gone on vacation during the summer months. Still, something to think about.
All in all, they were quite pleased with us. The Mayor was pleasantly surprised that I knew all about the political system and how it worked and what had transpired during the latest elections. I told him that I was interested in politics and always researched the different proposed laws to try and get a clear view of what was really happening. Not bad for a seemingly out of touch with reality stay at home mom of five, huh?
The next step is that the city council will meet all together in about two weeks and vote on approving or denying our citizenship. Then they send it off to the Kanton for approval, then we pay a lot of fees and we become citizens! Still will be at least another 6 months, as nothing in Switzerland is done hastily, but at least the wheels are definitely spinning. Oh, and the meeting ended promptly at 7:30, just like Herr Meier had said it would. I love this country.